Of Dragons and Dreams
by Red Stitches
Summary: Something has taken interest in Zell. Who and what it is and why does it seem so... Familiar? SeiferZell Yaoi, Slash, Au, Weirdness
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I have never owned anything. I don't even own the computer I write on.

**Warnings:** AU, weirdness, a plot (a small one, but anyway), OOC (there is a reason for that other than just my sucky writing skills) and bad english (english isn't my first language).

**Beginning: The hunt is on.**

**Prologue: Was it a Dream?**

It was dark, so very dark, not even the moons light reached the ground because of the thick branched trees above the moist soil that was mostly covered in different kind of mosses. It would have been hard to see in that poor light anyway, but now it was nearly impossible with fear his eyes and clouding his mind. The fear, he was nearly paralyzed with it.

Like the darkness wasn't enought for the forest that looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale, it was also silent. The silent certainly wasn't comfortable, it was as far as it possibly could be from comfortable. It was like the silence that comes when a lion is about to make its kill and the prey has just noticed something is wrong, but this silence was far more deadly. It hung heavy it the air and could almost be seen. Not a sound could be heard, if you excluded the sounds of frantic running, panting and some loud yells and thumps as the person running fell down **(1)**.

Zell cursed very loudly and with very colorful words as he stumbled and fell for the third time that night as his foot caught on some root that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Poor root, like it could have known someone would be running around in the middle of its forest after midnight like a headless chicken.

After a few very loud noises caused by him falling for the second time, the blond boy had decided there was no point in trying to be silent anymore (not that he would have been anyway.) and now he was just concentrating on getting away from the damned forest and whatever it was following him like a blood hound.

He had been running for what felt like hour (more like days.) and after having been on a week long and very annoying mission he definitely didn't have the strenght he needed to fight the thing, no matter what it was. He cursed again at himself for not killing the thing when he still could. At the moment he was exhausted and the only thing that kept him still running was the fact that he was too frightened to stop. Right now it didn't matter that his legs were killing him and every muscle in his body was aching with his every movement.

He didn't even know what he was running from or if there even was anything after him. It might be something equivalent to a mouse for all he knew, a mouse that was very bent on following him that is.

He had just finished his mission that Squall had sent him to, there had been some weird cult in the forest that had caused disturbances in nearby areas and he had been assingned to take care of them. Sure, it would have been an easy job if the "sorceresses" hadn't kept hiding and running away from him all the time.

Anyway, when he had completed he thought that he could easily go back to Balamb garden and be there before sunrise. That would have given him the rest of the day off. _/ So stupid. /_

There should have been no real problems, or so he thought, since he hadn't seen any monsters at all during his stay in this godforsaken forest. Of course he never even thought that something might have killed/eaten/chased away all the monsters that had lived there before he got there. (Though why the wannabe sorceresses would have held their cult in a forest full of monsters?) So he had collected his stuff, put out his camp fire and started walking back home.

No more than half an hour later he had started feeling like he was being watched (he was a SeeD after all, he was supposed to notice if he was spied on). So he had stopped, but since nothing had attacked him from the shadows he had continued his jorney. _/ Such an idiot. /_

The feeling hadn't gone away and he had started feeling quite uncomfortable, after that had asked if there was anyone there (well, maybe that wasn't the most intelligent thing to do). Only the wind had answered him. It had carried a strange scent, something he had never smelled before -not that he knew atleast-, something dangerous.

Under a second the scent had had him running for his life for no sensible reason. The longer he ran the more scared he got and the more he wanted to get away. His imagination only served to intensify the feeling and made him want to run. _/ Faster dammit. /_

He knew he shouldn't be afraid of the "bogeyman" after him, knew he needed to kill it before it killed him. But it was like an instinct and he also knew somewhere in a hidden corner of his brain that hosted his "wild side", that this "bogeyman" was right behind him just waiting to pounce at the very second he looked back. Zell was almost sure he could feel its breath against the back of his neck.

Suddenly there was a sound of a dry twig snapping under a great weight, or not, Zell couldn't tell if it was just his imagination playing tricks on him or if it was as real as he was. It sounded real, though Zell didn't know and wasn't willing to quess how far away or from which direction it came from. The sound seemed to echo around the whole forest. _/ Oh shit. /_

Overhelmed by sudden panic the blond darted to the right like a rabbit, thinking that maybe, just maybe, he would still be able to lose his unwanted pursuer. Unfortunatedly for him, and luckily for his maybe-there stalker, he didn't notice that the ground had disappeared from under him before he was already falling. With a shout Zell hit the steep hill and started rolling down to the bottom. After the unexpected downwards motion stopped, Zell just laid there on his back with his eyes closed and couple of new bruises and cuts marking his skin.

He wondered if his follower had finally left him alone. If there still was someone or something it should have already caught him, unless it was waiting for something to happen or was toying with him.

Zell groaned at the thought of being toy to someone like a mouse was to a cat and moved to lay on his stomach, everything bad always happened to him._ / I wonder when I lost all my stuff... /_ His back had felt strangely light and nothing had made his hillrolling any more nasty.

The ground under him was soft and the grass tickled his nose as he rested his face in it. He was tired and wanted nothing more than just to lay there and go to sleep without worrying about anything, but he still had to get back to garden and away from this creepy forest.

He sighed and opened his eyes slowly to see dirt and grass and oh, there was an ant too.

The martial artist pressed his gloved palms against the grass and tried to push himself on his hands and knees so he could get up. He almost managed to do that, but before he could fully straighten his arms he felt something press against the whole lenght of his back preventing the action. A shiver traveled through Zell.

He breathed it deeply._ / No reason to panic yet, there is no proof that it's anything dangerous. Please don't be anything dangerous. /_ Warm puffs of air touched the back of his neck followed by a deep growl. Now he was sure he wasn't imagining at all, he couldn't even think let alone imagine anything. He shivered again and not from the cold.

Whatever creature it was looming over him took few small steps forward (small for a something its size.) and as it moved its stomach rubbed against Zell's back, pressing him further down. It oozed warmth through his jacket and shirt and even as it creeped him out, he was still briefly curious about how warm it just had to be to emit so much heat his through his fairly thick clothes.

Now that it had moved the small blond could see a large clawed front leg covered in smooth golden scales next to both of his own hands. The monster clawed the ground and easily broke its surfase and growled again, louded this time. And with the growl, somewhere above Zell's head and almost completely out of his sight, a small golden and ruby red flame came out of its mouth.

Zell bit his lip and tried to crawl away from the monster to have enough room to attack it, but before he had a chance to do a thing he felt it wrap its two strong front legs around his waist and press its sharp claws through the material of his jacket and dig into his skin. He blinked in horror and opened his eyes wide open, clenching his mouth closed as he forced himself to keep from screaming, he didn't want to encourage the creature to attack him. It still wasn't enough to stop a strangled sound from leaving his throat._ / Oh god, oh god. OHHYNE NO. /_

There was hard pressure against his ass and then he was being humped against. Zell shut his eyes so tightly that it hurt, he had seen this coming. This was the only reason why he wasn't visiting the monsters stomach yet. He went with the rocking motion, there wasn't anything else he could do. He couldn't hit it from this position and if he attempted to kick it away he would propably (read: most likely.) get his head bitten off. Fun! So he couldn't defent himself in any way against being molested by an overgrown lizard!

After what felt to Zell like an eternity of desperation, it roared and the scent that he had smelled in the air earlier got stronger again.

He bit his lip to keep from wimphering and risked being killed by struggling, but the weight on his back was too heavy for it to help at all. Last thing he remembered before everything faded away was something wet and hot against his behind.

-

Zell was laying on a bed, a soft, warm, fluffy bed. It had a pillow and a thick blanket and everything and he didn't want to get up. He had been awake for several minutes, but hadn't opened his eyes yet. What happened, it had been a dream, right? It wasn't like that could really happen to anyone, if you got into a situation like that you were eaten. He took a breath and slowly opened his eyes.

White, the ceiling was white and spotless, good. He lowered his gaze to the walls surrounding him, they were white too. Not so good, they were too hospital like for his comfort, they weren't his own.

"Good, you are awake. Headache?" Zell turned his head towards the voice and blinked. Dr.Kadowaki, so he was in the infirmary then? Damn, it had been real.

"Mr.Dincht?"

"Uh... No." He answered, now how had he gotten in here? Why wasn't he eaten?

"Good, good. Anything else?" Dr.Kadowaki asked in a professional tone. He thought about it for a second before he winced as the pain in his muscles finally registered into his brain. _/ Ouch. /_

"I'm a bit sore, but I'll survive."_ / I'd better so I can find that thing and beat the shit out of it. /_

"Hmm..." Dr.Kadowaki opened a drawer and picked up a few different kind if bottles from there. "Some cadets had been walking around garden, they found you unconsius from somewhere near, I don't know the exact place... Do you need to tell me anything?" She looked at him expectantly as she handed him one bottle of pills and put the rest back.

"No, I'm okay." He shook his head and gave her a fake grin. She nodded in response and looked like she understood something that he wasn't even trying to get her to understand.

She made a gesture towards the pills and said, "take a few of those every day until the pain goes away, completely. Get a lot of rest and remember that you can always come here to talk."

"Err... Okay." He replied as she made her way out of the room, but stopped to say something more before hurrying away.

"Oh, and Zell, take a shower."

He blinked and then his eyes widened so that they almost fell out of his head. There was quite strong musky smell in the air around him.

Tbc...

**(1)** They weren't screams. No real man screams like a girl when they are scared. Not that he was scared.

**Author's notes:**

That was horrible, absolutely terrible. My writing sucks and I never manage to update anything. And now I'm cranky and my neck hurts from sitting in front of a computer for hours typing this thing, twice. The first time my computer didn't save but closed the program anyway (damned computer from hell). And I haven't even slept for days 'cause I was writing this and now I won't leave the bed for the next 24h.

**Ps.** Please don't flame the dragon thing, it will be (hopefully) explained later.

**Edited to make the thoughts easier to read.**


	2. Chapter 2

I should probably tell you that this happens after the second sorceress war and that I own nothing?

**Syciara-Lynx:** I continued, happy now? Keep reviewing and we'll see about the next chapter. And so that you would feel better... There will be Seifer/Zell, there is no way I could write a FF8 fic without. You just have to be patient, it's not like I could make them just jump each other... Wait! I could, couldn't I?

**Miyo Yukimora:**Yeah, Zell is so kawaii that even I would find it hard to resist if I ever saw him, and usually I'm so shy that I can't move a muscle towards anyone cute. So how could a brainless hides dragon ever resist him?

**Chapter 1: Him? Here?**

Lather, scrub, scrub, scrub, rinse, repeat.

The water was falling over his naked body like the summer rain, all warm and soothing against his reddened skin. Scrub, scrub. It was refreshing and cleansing and he hated it. Hated how it made him feel dirty, dirty compared to it's pureness. The spray should have hit his skin heavier like the red hot anger he was feeling. Anger that made him want to scream and pummel down that damn dragon that had dared to violate him like that. He was angry at himself too for not being able to defend himself against it. He was a SeeD, he should damn well have enough strengt to kill one monster. And as if the humiliation wasn't enough, Doctor Kadowaki just had to find out and now he couldn't even forget it as a bad dream, a nightmare. Like anyone could forget about something like that, except maybe Squall, but Zell wasn't a superhero.

Who knew what she now thought about him now… That he was incapable of taking care of himself? She might even tell his friends is she thought that it would be "for the best". And that would make his friends pity him, he would be treated like a baby and they wouldn't let him loose that particular memory, ever. Squall might even go as far as not letting him to go to missions alone anymore, if he cared at all.

_/ Damn that dragon! It should be rotting in the hell by now if I hadn't been so fuckin' scared of the thing. /_

Zell huffed in annoyance as he started to wash his chest for the umpteenth time. He had already rubbed the skin on his arms and legs raw and now they tingled and burned in some places and stung in the others. Maybe he should buy a softer washcloth so he could use it longer, rub a little harder?

After finishing washing the rest of himself and not breaking the skin anymore, he picked up a bottle of shampoo -strawberry scented- with his right hand as he got rid of the too rough washcloth with the other one. He was so immersed in his cursing of the "hynedamned firebreathing mockery of a reptile" that he didn't notice the lack of the spray of water before he had shampooed his short blond hair and was ready to rinse it.

"Wha? Noo… Not you too, don't do this to me," he pleaded in a awfully pained voice as he looked sadly at the showerhead that wasn't behaving and made the most perfect puppy dog eyes in case the inanimate object was secretly able to see, so it would feel sorry for him and work again. He stood there unmoving and looking retarded for several very long and very waterless minutes before his eyes narrowed in some not so cute and fuzzy emotion. Zell punched the side of the offending item, hard.

There was a nasty croak from the pipes and that alone was enought to indicate that the pipes were better to be left by themselves from now on if no professional help was involved. Then there was loud clattering sounds as the showerhead sputtered few times before it died completely.

"Ack!" there was a loud stream of curses and some names of lesser gods's mentioned as the last spray hit Zell in his eyes and managed to get the shampoo join in the fun too. His eyes stung.

Now even more annoyed blond martial artist gave one final blow to his attacker, that less than a second later lay in a growing puddle of water on the tiled floor. Seeing what he had done, Zell chose to flee from the scene in the bathroom, muttering about lack of money, sucky showers and too "busy" headmasters. On his way out of the bathroom he grabbed two of his fluffy, light blue cotton towels and directed one last loathing look towards the mangled showerhead on the floor and walked into a wall, missing the open doorway next to it. There was more cursing.

-

During the following minutes, and there was many of them, Zell finally somehow managed to gravitate to his kitchen sink. Since he wouldn't go as low as walking to the public showers with his hair already shampooed (people were bound to ask questions about things like that), he did the only thing he could do, he bowed.

Zell had thought that rinsing his hair in the sink would be an relatively easy job, but thanks to the small size and the shape of the sink he was apparently wrong. He couldn't fit his head completely under the water and he kept hittiong his head on the water tap.

Suddenly, when the blond was almost gotten his head into a position were rinsing his blond hair wouldn't be impossible, there was a hard knock on the door. It was a very hard knock, more like someone intending to get through the door without bothering to wait anyone to open it. Zell raised his head.

"Aww, shit!" he shouted as he straightened and brought a hand to rub the back of his head that now had a tiny dent shaped like the mouth of a water tap. Just his luck for someone to want to meet him right now.

"Zell? Are you alright?" _/ Selphie, should've known. /_

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come on in," he said, waving with his hand eventhough Selphie couldn't see it. He winced, he could almost feel a bump forming on his head, a big one. Bump with a dent on it, nice... Please note the sarcasm on your way out.

Soon a door opening could be heard and Selphie bounced in looking at Zell weirdly when he came into her sight, her nunchaku swinging innocently by her side. Ready to whack anyone daring to come too close.

"Soo… Whatcha doing?" she asked, tilting her head to a side in a very cute fashion and peering at Zell who had bent again to continue rinsing his hair while trying not to get too much water on the floor (he had enough of it in his bathroom now).

"I'm washin' my hair. My shitty shower broke **(1)** and now I gotta go to pester Squall into sending someone to fix it," he told as he finally got his hair shampoo free and rose without banging his head again, missing the disapproving look Selphie shot him, she never liked "nasty" words. Selphie shook her head at him and offered Zell one of his towels, one that he had left on his kitchen counter as she saw him looking for it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, but anyway... Sadly, I didn't come here to have a chat with you. Squally wanted me to give you this," she handed him a thin folder with his name neatly typed on it. "We have a mission to go to together tomorrow, isn't it just great! We will have so much fun together!" She yelled happilly and squeezed him, not caring about his visible lack of proper clothing and the look on his face as he started aching all over again due to Selphie's hug. He grinned at her despite the pain and his earlier anger, a mission with Selphie sounded like a good way to take his mind off things. He opened his mouth and was about to answer when she continued, making him look like a fish on dry land, "It was nice to talk with you, we really need to hang out more often. I gotta go now, see you tomorrow! Bye!"

He blinked as he acknowledged the fact that the hyper brunette wasn't in the room anymore, lowering his arms that he had lifted to hug the girl back to his sides. As he looked down another realization came to him, he was only wearing a small towel around his hips and another like it on his shoulders to prevent his hair from dripping and wetting the rest of him again. Zell blushed in embarrasment, she had just hugged him and he didn't even have a shirt on him. What if he had dropped the towel that was around his waist? Selphie would never have let him live it down.

Suddenly those thoughts cleared away from his mind as the persistent ache in his muscles chose to remind him about its presense. A new mission, and he wasn't even supposed to be back from his last one yet. Yes, Squall had been busy lately, but this kind of mistakes were a bit too much. He hated it when the new headmaster use his time or didn't have it to think things through. _/ I should ask him if everything's alright, this is't like him at all... /_

The blond huffed loudly and scratched the bridge of his nose. Withdrawing his hand from his face he looked at his nails, he should cut them or he would end up damaging the insides of his gloves or giving himself some nasty scraches in his sleep. A blink, back to his stormy friend. Squall was so secretive nowadays, even more now after the war. He had opened up quite much with Rinoa, but after their break up (that everyone had seen coming) he was back in his shell like some oyster.All his time he spent in his office hiding behind massive piles of different kinds of documents and papers or training in the training centre, alone... Not that he hadn't been a loner with Rinoa too, that had been the official reason for their break up, not that every one believed it. Some said that Rinoa had a secret that he never told Squall and that he had noticed the evasiveness of his girlfriend when they talked about some subjects. Irvine had told Zell that he was sure that either one of them had had a secret lover and thew other had found out. Zell had chosen not to believe anything he said regarding that matter.

What he believed was that fairytale endings never worked in real life, it was never that easy. He shook his head, getting rid of the thought that reminded him of the fact Squall had a more active "social life" than he did. Girls really weren't easy to please... Gah. Very far did he get from the previous thought. He tried to remember what he had thought before Selphie had interrupted him and made him hit his head. The blond frowned as he couldn't recall anything.

He shook his head again, harder this time, and small drops of water spattered all over his floor as he did so, his hair was still wet (and he felt like a dog). Picking up the towel from around his neck he started drying his hair, in vain trying to make sure it was truly dry and wouldn't drip anymore if he put clothes on. With the towel as moist as it had been to begin with he couldn't get them as dry as he wanted to, no matter how much he rubbed the blond locks. Zell shrugged as it didn't matter that much and threw the towel over a back of a chair were there was no danger of the wetness doing anything to his property.Forgetting about the towel he looked around his dorm.

There was absolutely nothing interesting or productive to do. He had read every one of his fighting magazines, even the one his Ma had given him a few days ago, every comic and every book that he owned (and a few that he didn't). He had played through all his video games, the good ones several times, he wasn't hungry (first time in everything, right) so he didn't need to go to the cafeteria and miraculously his room somehow happened to be already clean and tidy. Only thing he could possibly do without leaving his room or boring himself to death was to write a report about his latest mission to Squall, but he didn't feel like he could concentrate enough to do it actually readable. _/ Maybe I could go to the training centre if I'll make sure I don't over do anything. /_

A smile rose to Zell's face as he made his way to a mirror on the wall next to his door and it soon matured into a full grin, teeth and fangs and all. The grin faltered for a second as he tried to get his all too wet and heavy bangs to stand up and failed miserably. His face lit again in a nanosecond and he winked at his reflection, he looked damn good with his hair down.

He had gotten ready to leave and laid his hand on the doorknob when all of a sudden the blond felt like he had forgotten something very important. He had grabbed his gloves and put them on as soon as he chose to go to the training centre, so that couldn't be it... Zell looked down and growled like a pissed off dog.

"Hyne dammit!" he yelled as he stomped all the way to his bedroom to get finally dressed.

-

Few minutes later he emerged from his bedroom fully, but messily dressed in his normal outfit with his blond hair still adorably down, longer locks thrust behind his ears and the rest hanging freely in front of his sky blue eyes. He left on his journey to the training centre, half walking and half running since there was no one to tell him to slow down. All the mess today had gotten him all worked up and now he was ready to kick some pansy monsters ass!

Half a day, a T-rexaur and way too many gratts limped through the training centre's doors covered in blood and some random goo from somewhere he didn't necessarily want to be reminded of. He grumbled something not meant for anyone under eighteen to hear and flicked some of the greenish-yellowish-orange goo off his face and hair, if you excluded his shoes his front was completely covered in it. He had to take another shower now, unless he wanted to stink like someones lunch that had come back up to greet it's eater. Well, only that smell could be expected if you knew what the "goo" on him was... Stupid T-rexaur. Some one (Hyne) up there must really hate him to believe he deserved this. And after that second shower today that he was _so_ going to take he was going back to bed, hungry or not, he had had enough. The sooner this hellish day was over the better.

He was dog tired. He had had a sleepless night, the sleep he had gotten in the infirmary had been too little and hadn't recovered his strenght back to normal, and on top of all that his muscles had begun screaming for him to stop being an idiot and take a rest (his muscles hadn't used as many words to tell him that though). He should have foreseen that and taken some painkillers with him, but that was too late now. Truth to be told, his muscles had started complaining a few hours ago, but the adrenalin had masked the pain so well he hadn't noticed it while fighting, or slaughtering, gratts. He brought one (clean) gloved hand to his eyes and rubbed them, thanks to his sleep deprivation they ached too.

Zell was fairly sure that Dr.Kadowaki wouldn't want him to be putting this much strain on his body yet, but he knew his body better than anyone else and it had been in a worse shape than it had been after last night. _/ No, thinking bad. Stop thinking about it. /_

While Zell was leaning bonelessly against the doors leading to the training centre and busied himself filling his mind with flowers, clear skies, summer heat and cute, fluffy baby animals playing together, he failed to notice the presense of four other people who were now loitering in the hall, waitning for Zell to come back around from anywhere his mind had gone. Soon the blond boy opened his eyes and saw his company. Immidiately his eyes widened in suprise. He loathed these people and even more he loathed the way they seemed very happy to see him here in this condition.

"And so the princess came down from her tower, eh?" a tall red haired male with pale light blue eyes asked him, looking at his friends so they understood to start laughing at his tasteless joke. It wasn't that they were stupid, but none of them had the same sense of humor as the redhead. They just thought that if they all laughted then Zell would start crying or something... Then again, maybe they were stupid.

Zell grinded his teeth, not considering that it could make his fangs shorter and duller **(2)**. The redhead was called Ingervo and the rest were his small band of assholes with no brains, Stenberg, Lishman and Alex something. Alex, a tall brunette, had once before the war been his one of his friends, but after Zell confessed, after many sleepless nights, being unsure about his sexuality the other boy had taken off as fast as possible and joined "better" not-gay people. The idiot probably thought it was contagious or something. Now they were safely in their group milking the fact of Zell being "different" for millions of lame nicknames and even worse jokes.

They were now the official Balamb garden bullies now that Seifer wasn't there to keep them in line with his own taunting. _/ Kinda makes me want for him to come back. I miss how everything was then. Fucking wannabes. /_ They would have made him laught if it wasn't for one tiny thing, they were worse that Seifer had ever been. Sure, their intelligence and imagination were nothing like the older blond's, but Seifer had never gotten physical with him unless Zell initiated it, which he usually did when he saw the bastard.

The martial artist glared at the group that was looming over him and tried to push past them so he could get back to his room and away from them. His attampt was halted by gloved hands falling on his shoulders. Apparently not caring about the thick layer of goo and monster blood.

"Oh fuck off!" Zell shouted, almost too loudly as he was getting annoyed again and fast. The present company he was in wasn't welcome at all and he wouldn't have minded if they dissapeared from Balamb for good.

"Aww, don't ya wanna spend some time with us? We'll be very offended if ya don't and that won't be a good thing." Ingervo sneered, showing his teeth in a mockery of a grin. He didn't seem to realize or to care that his friends were now walking back and forth the corridor, looking around nervously. Even Lishman who usually didn't even bat an eye at anything. _/ What the hell are they nervous about. /_

Not getting an answer from the blond who was still wondering about the others the red haired male raised his head in a superior way that Zell thought fit Seifer so much better, and slapped Zell hard on his left cheek, making his head snap to the right. The seams on the leather glove leaving welts on Zell's reddening flesh.

"Answer to me when I talk to ya, bitch!"

Zell's eyes narrowed when he heard what he was called and he had to remind himself about garden's new rules that kept him from attacking the asshole. If there had been no rule and damage to his body stopping him he could have taken them all!

When Squall **(3) **became the headmaster and commander of Balamb garden he had done many pretty stupid things, one of them being the rule preventing Zell now from defending himself from these bastards effectively. Only blocking attacks was allowed as was "turning the other cheek" (that he would never do) or when and _if _he complained about them he would be punished too. Besides, there was no way people would believe that a couple of cadets were harassing a SeeD, a hero, unless they were caught doing it. _/ Damn Squall and his dumbass rules... /_

Suddenly without any kind of warning Alex started running away from the scene and the corner he had looked around, followed closely by Stenberg and Lishman as they noticed him taking his leave. Ingervo blinked before looking towards the corner which Alex had abandoned, before running after them, his tail tucked between his long legs and string of obscene words leaving his mouth.

Zell blinked too, how could he not, and then stared after them. He blinked again and stared some more before slowly walking backwards in the opposite direction and around the corner, only to bump into someone. He turned quickly around and got into defensive position before even looking who he had crashed into.

"Did Chicken get some new friends to play with while I was gone?" Seifer smirked down at him, his green eyes flashing. Despite the smirk on his face his posture tense like he wanted to lash at something, preferably something that didn't stain his beloved Hyperion, but anything near his reach would be fine too. Zell blinked again, not even noticing Seifer had spoken. He just stared at his eyes. Green.

There was something different in him now after the war and he didn't mean that he was miserable (like he should be) or anything. On the contrary, if it was possible his eyes were even greener than before and he looked like he was glowing, not visibly, but still. Like he was pregnant **(4)**, not that he had seen a pregnant male, ever. And a sight of a pregnant Seifer would probably drive his eyes into a suicide, it would really be that bad. _/ Oh Hyne, bad thought again. /_

"I know you are gay and that I'm absolutely gorgeous, but Chickie, I'm way out of your class." Seifer commented, preening in front of Zell and relaxing a little. The shorter blond finally got a hang of what was going on and blushed bright red with anger and something else, Seifer having hit a sore spot, opening and closing his mouth like a stranded fish at the same time. He was going to shout at Seifer, but before he managed to get a word out of his mouth the other interrupted him by smirking more and striding away speaking about Ice princesses, meetings and of being late.

"JERK!" Zell shouted after him when he got himself back together and Seifer waved him off as he dissappeared behind another corner. _/ I wonder what he's doing here. /_ He thought and brought his hand to his face, on his cheek this time. The rough fabric made it sting.

In another corridor Zell didn't have a chance to see the strange glimmer in the jade green eyes.

-

A day later:

They were right in front of him with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. He would always find them, there was no way he would let them go without a punishment. Running, running, running away from him, escaping. Not for long, the play was almost over and after the play. He roared.

The scent of their fear was strong it the air, making it so easy for him to follow them. He wouldn't be suprised to find out if one of them had wetted their pants. An acid smell, blood. They must have fallen. Still running.

They were panning something in their terror, looking for the right moment to strike. Too bad they didn't know there would be no right moment. Only a lot of wrong ones that looked right. He gave them one.

They slowed down, foolishly drawing their weapons to attack. His eyes flashed and he let go. A pounce and then there all that there was, was calm, beautiful red and screams.

**Tbc...**

**(1)** Damn, I almost wrote that his water broke… I blame that on my school starting again and random mpreg fics, they killed my brain.

**(2) **Once upon a time I had very cool fangs. Then I killed them.

**(3)** No, I don't have anything against Squall. cough cough

**(4)** Now there's a thought. dies from laughing too hard

**Author's notes:**

Rises back from death Um... Hey again, long time no see, huh? Sorry about the delay, but I just didn't feel like typing this thing onto my computer. I quess I must confess now that I did have this chapter written on paper for like a month? Ever since I posted the first one anyway. There just has been so much going on, school starting, homework and someone/something discouraging me heavily from continuing this, so I would like people to **review** and tell me what they think and then I am very likely to update more (even if I'm flamed, just to piss people off).

**Ps:** No, Seifer isn't pregnant now or later in this fic. XD

I would also want to say sorry about the OCs, but they are a necessary evil.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry about the possible bad quality of this chapter, but my writing tends to be worse when I write straight on to my computer and not on to paper first.

**Advancing**

**Chapter 2: Conversations**

He walked like a brainless zombie, he couldn't help it. He just didn't find the strenght to do anything, only enough to lift his legs so he could step forward without falling flat on his face, embarrasing himself once again. He couldn't even see what was in front of him, other than his nose. His eyes were closing, no matter how much he tried to fight it, he needed sleep and he needed it badly. If Zell hand't been completely worn out before his misson with Selphie, he definitely was now, he felt like he would fall into a coma as soon as he saw a bed, any bed, and never wake up again.

He thanked Hyne that Selphie was still as hyper as always and hopped before him, leading him by his hand so he couldn't walk into too many walls on their way to Squall's new office. Squall had gotten it after the second sorceress war, it wasn't anything magnificent, it was a tiny cube really **(1)**. Zell often wondered if he had some secret room attached to it so he could have some space to turn around.

Zell brushed weakly his sweaty bangs away from his face with his free hand and then took hold of Selphie's small hand with both of his own so the brunette was literally pulling him along. Selphie looked back at him for a second and flashed him a big encouraging smile before starting to go faster. The blond let out a small moan of discomfort that was not much more than a breath because the muscles in his arms protested against the handling as Zell's body couldn't keep up with the girl.

Anyway there was a small smile lingering on the martial artist's face, even when he was too damn exhausted to bother with his usual grin. Despite the weakness in his limbs he was in a good mood. When they left he had been the complete opposite, he had been something between depressed and pissed off, but Seilphie's constant happiness had rubbed off on him. Now there was a strange feeling of content lingering in his veins. Unfortunately Selphie had kept her endless suply of energy all to herself.

Their mission hadn't gone how he had wanted it to go, all simply and easily, but Selphie on the other hand had loved it. She was always estatic when they got to blow shit up. It had been the only option after Zell had sneezed quite loudly when some dust landed on his nose, and blew their cover. Zell had instantly taken a defensive position and Selphie had drawn her weapon, ready for a good fight. They had found themselves staring at more monsters that they had ever before seen at one place, all of them slowly stalking towards them. They could have possibly won the fight if they both had been in top condition, but with things as they were they didn't have a chance.

At that point he had thanked Hyne (and forgived him for everything that had happened lately. ) for having Selphie to pack the most effective and dangerous explosives she had found, just in case something like this would happen. Luckily the monstrers had done something extremely bizarre to give time for Selphie to plant the bombs and for them to escape afterwards.

When the monsters had gotten close enough to attack them they had stopped like to a wall and just looked at them warily. It was clear that the monsters had the upperhand over an injured prey and Zell and Selphie had known that the monsters knew that too. They hadn't thought about it at the time, they had been just happy to get the hell away from there before the bomb went off, but now it was all coming back to him. A part of the group had looked scared and the rest confused, like they didn't know should they believe what their senses were telling them or to attack. It had been a close call, because as soon as the brunette had gotten the bomb ready the confused monsters had made their minds and launched them selves at the two with the scared ones following the example.

All in all the mission had went well since only a couple of new scrathes adorned his skin and Selphie hadn't even gotten that much injuries if she had at all. She certainly didn't seem to have, even if you looked closely.

Zell closed his eyes completely as they entered Balamb garden and it's familiar hallways where he didn't need to bother to look at were he and Selphie were going and even if he made a mistake in calculating the distances between places Selphie would surely warn him if he was about to walk into something. Or not if she was too far before him to notice anything as small as her friend shouting in sudden pain of connecting his nose with a random obstacle.

It was a small miracle that they both got to the headmaster's office without any incidents in a relatively short time, as it was a good thing that they had lifts at garden, because the blond boy was quite sure he wouldn't have been able to walk any stairs. His every limb felt like they weighted more than a ton. He absent mindedly quessed Selphie didn't have any problems like that since she looked like she could still run a marathon, or two, as she bounced to Squall's door and rapped on it gently with her knuckles, that gentleness in her actions made the blond behind her frown as he witnessed it. _/ Why can't she knock on my door like that? Does she really enjoy that much causing me heart attacks. /_

There was a short pause, rustling of papers and a sound of drawers opening and closing before Squall started to call them in, but before he even finished his sentence Selphie was opening the door and rushing inside to greet their mutual friend. Zell smiled a little at the brunettes antics and shook his head in a way that was barely visible and then pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against and disappeared to the office. The brunette girl was already squeezing the life out of their friend before the was even gotten fully into the office._ / Damn the takes things fast. /_

"Umm... Hey Squall." He mumbled as he observed the situation, he didn't know what would be the best way to approach things, Squall didn't look like he was enjoying the hug quite as much as Selphie. He let out a deep breath and relaxed when Squall nodded his greetings and waved for him to sit in a comfy looking chair before his desk, pushing Selphie off him at the same time so that the meeting could officially begin. As Squall cleared his throat and was about to start his speech, Selphie too took a chair for herself and sat down, swinging her legs to satisfy her need for being on the move, Zell too anticipated the awaiting boredom and leaned back on the chair and rested his head on his hand for a more comfortable position.

Squall gazed at their actions rather disapprovingly, but chose to remain silent on the matter and just go on with the show since the was only a very small chance that he could change their behavior for any longer that few minutes.

"Selphie already infoed me briefly about the mission before you even left the site, so I will start with the question, what went wrong? You are both high ranking SeeDs, yet you couldn't complete the mission without taking actions not informed in the folders **(2)** I gave you!"

They both blinked in disbelief at the abnormal outburst of their usually solemn and silent friend. "You blew the whole cave up, if you had been any slower you both would be dead. Do you have any idea how I felt when there was now answer from either of your intercoms!"

They both still sat there in complete silence, all their motions ceasing, excluding their blinking eyes. Oh yeah. Squall had definitely lost his mind. Or he had been possessed or something, there was no way this person was the person they knew. The silence continued for a while, until Zell opened his mouth and broke it with a question of his own, "Um... Squall, what the hell have ya been smokin' while we were gone?"

Now it the brunette's turn to blink, he hadn't even noticed that he had gotten out of his chair at some point and was now standing, leaning over his desk with both of his palms pressed to its smooth surface. He drew a breath as he calmed down and sat again, straightening his uniform and cleaning it for unexsisting dust particles.

"Sorry." He said silently, "I am pleased that you both got out safely." With no more explanations than that he went on with his usual speech like nothing had happened. Selphie smiled warmly at their friends display of emotion, it was nice to know that he cared under that ice cool facade. She was actively participating in their discussion with Squall, but Zell was slowly falling asleep as he droned on, once in a while waking up as he was asked a question.

"Zell! Anyone home!" Selphie yelled into his ear, starling him and making him almost jump out of the chair. Squall was frowning at him.

"Uh. Sorry, go on."

"Zell, there is now use to have this conversation with you now if you can't stay awake. Go get some sleep, I'll see you later if you can then keep your eyes open for longer than ten seconds at a time."

Zell thanked, nodded in agreement and got out of the chair, slowly so he didn't crash on the floor. He said his goodbyes to Squall and Selphie, getting a hug from the girl in return. He walked out and as he was closing the door he could see Squall shaking his head with a small smile on his face at something the other brunette had said as he shuffled through the papers on his desk, looking for one thing or another.

-

"Ahh."

Zell closed his eyes in extasy as he finally fell into his soft bed. He hadn't even bothered to take off his clothes yet, the thought of a warm and safe place to sleep too good to prolong. He laid still for a few minutes suddenly not so tired anymore as the longer he laid there the more he felt like he was being watched, there was no way he was ever going to get any sleep if he expected something to jump him at any second now. Huffing he opened his eyes slightly to look if there was anyone in the room with him. Not seeing anything from the angle he was in he rose to his elbows so he was a little bit higher and blinked a few times, it was quite dark in his room as the curtains in front of the bedroom window were closed.

What he saw, or what he thought he saw shocked him to the core and had him twisting to get out of the tangled covers. It all happened in less than a second and the hurry made him fall out of the bed with a loud thump instantly. So he now laid on his side on the floor, the tangled covers still with him and wrapped around his body even worse, he was unmoving like a marble statue, not even breathing. It was eerily quiet and if it would have been any less stupid not to check if he had seen right, he would have been very much against breaking the silence by any kind of a movement on his part.

The blond mumbled curses under his breath and jumped up from the floor to see around the room, it was, thankfully, completely empty, like no one but him had ever even been in it. He listened and couldn't hear anything unusual. Just for a second he thought he had seen a golden dragon with blazing green eyes at the end of his bed. _/ But that would have been impossible, the door is locked and there is no way in hell something as big as it had been could move in the garden and go unnoticed. /_

The need to sleep coming back to him he stretched and laid back on the bed, this time succumbing to sleep instantly. There was a small rustling noise after Zell was too far gone to care anymore or to remember it in the morning and then the door to his rooms opened and closed.

-

He woke up in the evening feeling more rested than he had for days, there had always been something preventing him from getting uninterrupted sleep and recharging his energy **(3)**. The blond streched and rubbed his eyes. He was warm, somehow he had crawled unted the covers in his sleep and was now feeling nice and toasty, that was making him happy too. Or maybe it was the dream he had. He couldn't recall much of it, but he had felt safe and content and fluffy all the way through it and the emotions had stayed even after when he had awakened.

"Mmm..." _/ Feels like someone had filled my mind with clouds... Don't wanna get up... /_ He thought, but pushed the covers away anyway, he had a headmaster to find.

-

Later, after taking a shower, of course not using his own since it was still in a pretty bad shape (he was lucky that the water still didn't flow or he would have been accused of nasty water damages), he got dressed and left for cafeteria. He was dieing of hunger so he was hoping he would run into Squall after eating, any sooner and he would have to say good bye to all the yummy hotdogs.

He got in the line, waiting for his turn. In a far away corner in an almost empty table was eating someone who caught his eye, Squall. _/ I guess talking to him while eating is okay too. /_

Zell got his food - hotdogs, four of them – and walked over to Squall, dropping his tray on the table and taking a seat opposite to his friend.

"Hey Squall, you wanted to see me?" The blond greeted, getting a wordless nod in return. "So, what ya wanted to talk to me about?"

Squall frowned in disgust as he watched Zell speaking with his mouth full. He was tempted to brush a hand through his hair to make sure that there was no bits of food in it, but that would have meant he cared about his look more than Rinoa. Even she didn't do it and then if he did it, it could be considered girlish and vain. There was a lot of things Squall knew could be said about him, but he hoped girlish and vain weren't on that list.

"Selphie already informed me about your mission, I only need your report."

"Huh? Okay, so that was all?" He waited few minutes for an answer, but went back to eating his hotdogs as it was clear that there wasn't going to be one.

The rest of the meal was silent, or would have been if you excluded Zells constant chattering and the natural sounds of the cafeteria that filled the air. There wasn't even any grunting from Squall that usually meant he was still listening and Zell was noticing this as well. The brunette sat there looking all calm and collected, but small things like the lack of grunts gave away that something was bothering him today.

"Hey, are you okay man?" No response, not even a blink. "Yo Squall!"

"Hm?"

"Is somethin' bothering you?" Zell swallowed what was left of his hotdogs and reached over the table to put a reassuring hand on Squall's shoulder. Normally the other would have removed said hand so it surprised the blond when there was no such movement. Squall seemed to think hard about should he tell him and finally choose to.

"There was an… attack near Garden. Four cadets were injured." _/ Hyne. I hope no one I know was injured. /_

"What happened?" The blond asked his eyes wide.

"The cadets insist that they were attacked by a dragon and that they couldn't get even one hit to land on it, yet somehow they survived. The wounds on them support their story, but I have never seen anything like them, they were placed so that no permanent harm was caused. Whatever did it had no intentions of killing them."

"So are ya saying that this thing's like, intelligent?"

"More so than average monsters." / _/ Great, sounds like my lizard. Nothing with no intelligence could be that... Sick. /_

"Who were they?"

"None you knew, Ryan Stenberg, Ingervo Dantchev, Alexander Valkeavirta and Damien Lishman."

"Oh." _/ Them. Why it had to be them, now they're going to be more pissy than normally when they will be released from the infirmary. On the brighter side, this is one more reason to rid world of the firelizard. /_

"Are you listening to me, Dintch?"

"Huh?" _/ Damn. I ignored him. /_

"You knew them" It was more a statement than a question.

"Not really." _/ Yeah, I wish. / _"Umm… Squall? I think I've seen that dragon before, on the mission I had just before the one with Selphie." Zell said, nervousness practically coating his voice.

"You didn't state an encounter with a dragon on your mission report." _/ Oops. Caught. /_

"It kinda slipped from my mind." Zell said and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. This had been one shitty week for him and it didn't seem to be getting any better,

"Hn. The dragon is dangerously close to garden, we need to exterminate it. I will leave tomorrow morning at 0900 hours." _/ Alone? But that means he's going to kill it before I even get a chance to beat it up! No way! I'm **so** going with him/_

"I'm comin' too! I know where to look for it!" Squall shot him a pointed look that's meaning went straight over his head. The brunette sighed.

"You need to rest."

"I have enough strength in me to kill one bloody dragon. I'm goin'!"

"Where are you going?" Selphie inquired as she plopped down on the seat next to Zell.

"Dragon hunting." Zell stated, crossing his arms and looking overall very unmovable on his decision.

"Sounds like fun. " She looked at Squall with a sunshiny smile, there was no way he was going to make her stay at Balamb Garden. The other brunette just took it like a man and grumbled something under his breath.

"Talking about me?"

"Oh fuck off Almasy! There's nothing in you to talk about!"

"Seifer! We are going dragon hunting, you gotta come too!" Selphie squealed latched herself on his sleeve.

His brows furrowed and something inside him shifted. "Sure." He glanced at Squall for confirmations.

"Whatever. We are leaving tomorrow at 0900 hours. Be ready at the front gates or you will be left behind." With that he rose from the chair and left, Selphie not far behind him.

"So Chicky, it's just you and me now. Wanna go to watch chocobo racing with me someday?" His head was tilted to one side, he was watching Zells reactions with slitted eyes and there was a hint of a smirk playing on his lips.

"Dream on Almasy! I know this is some kinda sick joke to you!" The shorter blond replied before turning harshly his back to Seifer and storming off. On the table was left his empty tray to mock the blond that had just been coldly rejected. He stood there for a second, feeling idiotic, and something in him rose to reside right under his smooth skin. Swirling under the surface. _/ I just thought you would have liked that... / _**(4)**

He had never cried before, but now the tears just... Came.

**(1)** I really use that word way too much.

**(2)** I just can't get into my mind right now what those mission briefing things are called...

**(3) **Just noticed that every time I have been tired I have written Zell to be tired too and now that I have taken a nap and eaten my caffeine candies he is rested as well... I should stop letting my moods influence my writing.

**(4)** In case s9omeone doesn't realize, this is Seifer's thought.

**Author's note:**

This chapter was meant to be longer, but I just wanted to get it done so it wouldn't be nagging in the back of my mind all the time. Last week was a test week for me, so this chapter was delayed because of that, I had to study and there was no time to write this at all. It twill most likely take even longer before I get the next one out, 'cause I have so much to do. I need to read a whole book in English and write 8-page-long thing of it (a hell for me) and I also need to do a 20 minutes long lesson about sexual ethics in Christianity. So until the next chapter, bye!

**Ps: Don't forget to review if you want that next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

From now on thoughts will be marked with _italics_ only.

And here comes the suckiest chapter of them all!

**Chapter 3: The fall aka Zell rides the dragon**

The forest, that was were they were now, Squall, Selphie, Zell and Seifer. _That bastard._

It was the same forest where Zell had first seen the dragon, but he was quite positive that it was nowhere near the excact place. However he also believed that they would see the dragon anyway, no way it would leave him alone even if he had the others with him.

They were all standing there in the woods, in the shadow of some larger trees, not doing much anything yet. They were waiting for Squall's orders, but the stoick brunette was occupied by some of their gear at the moment. This gave Seifer a perfect moment to look at Zell, several times. He didn't try to hide it, even Selphie noticed him doing it and Zell would have too if he hadn't been trying to avoid any action that included any action that had anything to do with the taller blond. That included avoiding looking back at him.

It was easy to see that Zell was still mad at him. Zell kept huffing and turning away from him, the younger males cheeks were stil brightl red too, that was bullet proof evidence of his anger.

Seifer himself was getting pissed at Zell as well, at Zell and everything else. He hated being ignored and being ignored by the chickenwuss of all the people felt even worse. It was like a stab to his already bleeding heart. He growled low in his throath and crossed his well muscled arms. This wouldn't do at all.

He began walking across the small glade they were located in and towards Zell, but before he got very far Squall called out. "You all know what we are here for and have done missions like this before, so I will skip the briefing. I want this thing down as quickly as possible." Squall took fous walkie-talkies out of a bag he had been carrying and then continued. "You all take one of these and for your knowledge, I checked all of them so I won't accept any excuses if you break them." He gave a pointed look at Zell who just smiled sheepishly as the small machines dissappeared from his hold. "Now lets spit up and kill this monster."

Nothing happened. They all remained standing there, feeling weird and waiting for someone else to pick which way to go first. Selphie grinned.

"Zell and I are going to look from there!" She said, sounding excited as she pointed to a random direction with one hand while grabbing at Zell with the other. She got a hold of his sleeve and didn't let go before they got out of the hearing range, not even when Squall shouted after them that they had to go to different ways so that they could cover as much of the area as possible. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? What do you meand Selph? I'm fine." Zell answered, looking bewildered with his sky blue eyes wide open. He hadn't been expecting her to ask that.

"Your face is all red. What happened, someone asked you out or something?" The brunette giggled, but didn't stop looking out for any dangers that might reside in their path.

"No! He just-" Zell blurted before he slapped one gloved hand to his mouth. A blush rose to his already red cheeks.

"He? Was it Seifer? _He_ asked you out?! I knew he did something, but that..."

"NO! I already said-. How did you know it was him?" He shot his friend a suspicious look.

"Oh, hee kept glancing at you so I knew something was up. Did he call you names again? If he did I'm going to kick his ass 'cause it's mean!"

"It wasn't that, he was just being the regular bastard. He asked me to go somewhere with him, I bet he would have laughed his ass off if I had said yes!"

"But Zell..." Selphe whined. "What if he meant it and you broke his heart!"

"Hah! As if, I doubt he even has a heart and if he does, he deserved it."

"Zell, don't be such a-" Selphie was cut off by a massive roar that came from behind some nearby bushes. They turned around in a heartbeat and prepared themselves for the fight to come.

-

"This is Leonhart, do you copy? Over." Came the scratchy voice over Selphie's walkie-talkie and she reached for it with her left hand. Her right one stung from the fight, but they knew it would be just fine soon.

"Yeah, Zelly is still with me too. Over."

"If you are done with your area getback to the starting point, I will be there. Over."

"We'll come right over. See ya there! Over." Selhpie stuffed the thing back to it's place on her belt. For once she had chosen to wear pant on to a mission.

"Let's get going then!" Zell said and brushed few strands of hair from his eyes. For some reason he was feeling nervous and he didn't want the other to notice that. The girl was too nosy and bright for her own good sometimes, but that also made her a good friend, she cared. She flashed him a smile and then they left.

-

Later, when they were back to the glade where they had begun their mission, there was no sign of Seifer, but Squall was standing near the trees on the other side. Like there was any questioning welther or not their fearless leader would appear.

"Where's Seifer, did you get it?" Selphie asked instantly and hopped over to Squall.

"Not here, apparently. And no, I didn't even see anything that could have caused the damage."

Selphie pouted at him. "Bugger, we only got this huge grat-like thing. It was SO dumb... I wonder where Seifer is..." She had a far away look in her eyes.

"That jerk must have run off again. Doesn't suprise me." Zell commented. Alas, he didn't notice the glare that Selphie gave him. "Ouch! That hurt, why did you do it?!" He exclaimed when Selphie hit the back of his head, quite hard too.

"Don't be like that, he's our friend!"

At this point Squall rolled his eyes and stepped away from the fighting two.

"Like hell he is!" Zell snapped. "I hate that fucking dragon, if it weren't for it we wouldn't even be here!"

"But Zell..." Selphie complained. "Dragons are awesome." The blond winced as the memory of what happened to him in this particular forest returned to haunt him once more. "Too bad those stupid knights and princes always have to kill them." The girl pouted at Zell too now and made silly puppy dog eyes as she tried to get him to agree with her point of view._ Oh, she's talking about fairytales and stuff... I feel so sorry for all those maidens._

Not seeming to get an answer out of her friend Selphie shrugged. She was sure that Squall would need some cheering up because of their search had been fruitless, unless Seifer killed it of course. He fould be mad not only because he failed at something, but also because there was still a threathening _his_ cadets. They were a part of Balamb Garden, and his Garden was one of the few things Squall cared about, even if he didn't show it. She saw her target and she charged.

"Squall, wait!"

Zell sighed at her and eyed the area, Seifer was still missing._ Maybe he got hurt?_

The blond ckocked his head to one side and stared into the forest._ Nah, he can take care of himself... unlike me. _

He stood there thinking for a while, but started bouncing in place soon and then hopping around shadow boxing. The stillness of the forest was getting to him, it felt like there was a monster watching him, taking in his every movement, waiting. This time he was sure it was mere paranoia, but he couldn't shake off the feeling. He was trying to distract himself from thinking too much by being on the move all the time, but because of that he accidentally overlooked few facts about the moss on a large boulder he jumped on.

The moss was moist and slippery so it naturally caused Zell to lose his footing on it. The blond slipped, fell on to his ass and slithered down the other side of the rock, all the way into a dark hole on the ground. As he dissappeared he groped around to get a hold of a root or anything to stop his fall, unfortunately there was nothing. All he got was two handfulls of grass.

He fell for a couple of very long seconds before he hit the hard bottom with his back with his arm twisted under him. The force of the impact threw his head back and hit it against the dirty ground, his head hurt and even in the dark he could feel his eyes blurr and sight darken. There was nowhere near enough of light down there to see, but some light did pour in from the entrace several meters above him, if it had been earlier that light might have been just fine. He didn't stay still to wait for his sight to get adjusted to the dark, but fumbled around in hope of finding an escape. Zell found out that the small cave did continue two meters or so behind him, but ended there.

_Damn._

He couldn't get back up, not with his head hurting like this and the ache building up in his right hand. He was nothing without his hands. So he yelled.

"Squall! Selphie! Heck, SEIFER! Help!"

There was no answer, not even the smallest sound even after more failed attempts._ How far did I wander? Why can't they hear me? Are they worried?_

The light above him was blocked for a second and then some loose earth and pebbles fell on him. Actually, make that a lot of earth, the hole got larger. _Squall?_

Just as Zell was about to open his mouth to call out the light was blocked again and something pushed past him. Something that he could swear on Hyne was not a Squall. There was a rumbling noise from behind him and before he even thought about turning around he was grabbed by the back of his jacked and swung on to a back, between two, huge, feathered wings. _The dragon?_

He had barely enough time to grab a hold on it as it suddenly got on its hind legs and started climbing, its large, clawed, hand-like paws and strong muscles easily lifted it out of the hole even with the added weight on its back. The blond let go of it and rolled off of his saviour's back as soon as they were steadily on safe ground again with no holes to fall into, hitting his head once again in the process. He "oofed" as he contacted with the grassy earth. He hurt and he ached, but this time it wasn't the dragons fault **(1)**.

He opened his eyes that he didn't know were closed in the first place and gazed into a set of very intelligent green eyes. A small, whisphered, "thanks" was all he had the strenght left to say before he passed out.

The dragon that was left standing there changed its shape and with a small smile it picked Zell off the ground.

**Tbc...**

**(1) **Well, it was never the dragon's fault to begin with, it was Zell's for running away.

**Author's excuses for the lateness:**

Does anyone even read these things? Pfft. So, I hope you all who bother with this don't hate me for the wait or the shortness of this chapter... And I forgot what else I was supposed to write... Anyway... I had small writer's block, so I apologisize if the chapter seems too forced. Another reason for that is that I stayed awake till 6am twice while writing this and to explain the shortness... This was the leftover from the last chapter.

It was late because when I once didn't have a writer's block I was sick and every time I looked down I was about to throw up. I didn't feel like buying a new keyboard. And then there was Christmas and visiting relatives who don't like me and painting and stuff, and then our computer crashed. My dad tried to fix it, but it only got even more messed up. He never gets a professional to do anything. Then I went and broke our Internet. Very fun. But now I have already started on the next chapter so hopefully it will be up before Easter.

I would also like to say sorry that the quality of the conversations is bad, I rarely talk to people. And for anyone who is still reading... go to **review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4: Recognization**

He walked around in the darkness that surroinded him. Walked around in the thick, black darkness.Seeing nothing, feeling nothing and hearing only a monotonous beeping sound that was driving him insane. He had tried, but he couldn't catch its source. It was always just out of his reach, getting slowly further away from him.

He tried reaching for it once more and the darkness around him buzzed like a cloud flies at night and faded away. Then the brightness came.

Zell cracked his eyes open, everything looked slightly hazy. He rubbed his eyes and opened them again to find a white ceiling above him, held there by the familiar white walls. _Great, here again..._

He lowered his eyes from the ceiling and took a more upright position on the bed only to stare right into the very angry eyes of Dr.Kadowaki. His gaze lingered for a second on the wrinkles forming around those greyish eyes.

"Young man! What did I tell you! Take it easy and take the pills, doesn't sound too hard to do, but no. You run off to a mission without even taking them with you! Don't you know what kind of damage you could have caused to yourself!" She yelled at him, waveing her hands in the air in frustration and throwing him those looks that could kill a weak hearted person.

Zell flushed in embarrasment. He had forgotten about the possibility of getting damaged, but he hadn't forgotten about the pills. He had taken them before he left, even a few more than he should have so the effect would last through the whole day, otherwise he might have put the others into a danger. He knew that while fighting a monster even a headache could hinder his fighting enough to change the outcome if the others weren't prepared for backing him up. Pain from wounds did nothing to him, but aching he hated, it tended to wrap his thoughts around the ache and away from the fight.

"But I did none! See, I'm fine!" Zell replied as he rose from the bed he had been resting on. The doctor was by his side in a second, preventing him from leaving the bed and fussing about tests and stuff that Zell knew nothing about. The blond laid back on the bed willingly, he had noted the painful shiver that ran all the way through him. _Maybe I'd better listen to her._

The doctor sighed, shaking her head and adviced him to move all his limbs slowly, one at a time, while she probed, poked and asked him silly questions like "does that hurt" and "do you want to continue". It did hurt, it had hurt before too, but he hadn't realized it because of the strong painkillers in his system. Zell sniffed a little as he finished stretching his left leg, ache in it had been the worst. There was no additional pain from the fall in his right hand so he quessed that the doctor must have cured it.

"Now this is why I didn't give you anything to dull the pain while you were unconcious and waited for you to wake up. I did heal your injuries, as you have most likely noticed, but I wanted you to also feel the state you have driven your body into." She looked at him like she was accusing him of a murder. "But it could be worse." She continued, her expression lightening a little. "You will be completely fine in a few days if you just let your body to heal itself properly. You need bedrest Zell and I know that even if you tried you could never keep yourself still long enough for that to happen, were you in your dorm or at home under your mother's watchful eyes." She smiled at him now and Zell somehow knew that he wouldn't like whatever she was going to say next. "So I have chosen to keep you here under my very own supervision."

"WHAT!"

-

The loud noises from the Garden's cafeteria flooded into Zell's ears and when he stepped inside he had to stop just to adjust to them. Two days in a silent enviroment did miracles to one's hearing, but even without he would have heard the familiar squealing of the brunette girl that was coming towards him with enough bounce in her steps to make a medium quality superball jealous.

"Hi Zell! Where have you been? I haven't seen you in days!"

"In the infirmary. Eating horrible food and _sleeping_. Hyne, I'm _never_ sleeping again!" He grumbled at Selphie who had taken his hands and was spinning around with him, unable to keep still and effectively blocking the way for other people that were trying to enter the cafeteria. She giggled and let go of his hands when their spinning speed was still relatively high and made them both fall on the floor. Zell laughed too, not caring about the quite annoyed people that were now trying to find their ways past them or about the very imaginative curses some of them let as they passed. It felt too good for him to be out of the prisen he had spent the last few days in.

They sat there for a while before Zell desided that they had angered enough people and that he really had to go to get his hot dogs now or he would be left without again. He stood up and offered a hand to Selphie who took it - still giggling - and pulled herself off the floor too.

"So, have you eaten yet?" He asked her and waved towards a lenghtening line of hungry SeeDs and cadets, who were waining to be fed, with one hand as they started walking to take a place at its end. The brunette nodded in answer to his question, but still came along.

"They are out of hot dogs." She told her friend nonchalantly as if telling him something unimportant, like that the sky was really black, but only looked blue, and then grinned at Zell when he turned to look at her. "I ate the last one."

"You what? Selphie... You ate my hot dog!" Zell screethed at her. The girl kept grinning as she left his side to find them a place to sit while the other waited in the line. Luckily Zell had been late so the line wasn't as long as it could have been, like on a bad day during the busiest hour when the line reached long way outside the cafeteria doors. Someone really ought to reorganize the event.

When it was his turn Zell grabbed something possibly close to edible, a glass of milk and an apple – for an apple a day kept the doctor away and he really didn't want to see Dr.Kadowaki in a while –, and then he searched the cafeteria for the brunette. It was an easy thing to do and he had expected it to be so as Selphie was wearing her usual bright yellow dress and was waving her hands high in the air as soon as she saw Zell approaching.

"Wanna tell me what happened there?" Zell asked as he settled in a seat opposite of his friend, pushed his tray forward to make more room for his hands and leaned over the table as if he wanted to the conversation be a secret.

"Hm? Where? At the forest?" Selphie waited for Zell to nod. "You fainted."

"No I didn't! Only girls faint, I passed out and I meant what happened _after_ I passed out."

"Fine, however it was Seifer who told us that, you were out cold when we saw you. He carried you from the forest in his arms and it was _so_ romantic!" Selphie squealed in excitement. Zell flushed and was about to slap the girl on her head for even thinking something like that, but a thought that came to his mind stopped him.

"Did you find it?"

Selphie blinked at him, looking like someone had just woken her up.

"The dragon. Did you find it?"

"Nah.. we were going to wait for you to show up and then go back looking in a group, but 'cause you were unconsious we had to take you to infirmary. Squall didn't think it would've been wise to wake you up there."

"You must have at least seen it. I saw it!"

"Maybe it was just a bad dream - poor Zelly – otherwise Seifer would've said something, right?" She said and ruffled Zell's hair to comfort him.

"Yeah, a dream. But hey, you have to get going now. I bet Squall was worried too, even if he never shows it, you know." Zell waved to her halfheartedly as she went to tell their headmaster that the blond was still alive and kicking, hard.

_/ Seifer must have seen it if he gor me out of the forest. /_ Zell stuffed rest of the food he hadn't eaten yet into his mouth, swallowed and and ran off to look for the older blond. An empty tray was left to an empty table.

_/ He saw it, I'm sure of it. How could he not have when he was the one who carried me back, I could feel someone pick me up after I fell off the dragon... No way it could have gotten away fast enough to remain unseen. I just don't know why he didn't tell the others, he must have wanted all the glory to himself or something. Damn, I need to find Seifer to figure this out/_

It wasn't long before Zell stopped like into a wall.

_/ Those eyes. /_

-

Zell hadn't found Seifer even after he had searched the whole Garden, the man seemed to have vanished into thin air, or he just didn't want to be found. Zell hadn't overlooked anything. He had searched classrooms, dorms, closets and looked under every table large enough to hide the gunblader. Before the war it would have been so much more simple. He could have asked Raijin and Fujin as they always knew where Seifer was if they weren't with him and there was no table or closet that could hidden all three, but now they weren't here. They hadn't come back with their blond friend. Maybe Seifer was visiting them?

Zell had been tempted to raid a few girls rooms while searching as well, it would have given him something over Seifer if he had caught him there. However he was forced to reconsider when he remembered what the other could do to him if Zell caught him doing something naughty. Not that Zell even had codes into the girls's rooms. So anyway, Zell had ended up in the training center. Surely Dr.Kadowaki wouldn't kill him if he beated up a few grats, after all, his bedrest was already over and who was going to tell her anyway?

It had been close to half an hour when Zell's thoughts began to wander away from what he was doing. The grats were so easy to kill these days that it required no brain activity to fight them and like the blond couldn't stay still physically, his thoughts rarely stood still either and thats what people took as stupidity.

_/ So much has happened lately... /_ Punch, kick, few more punches, another kick.

_/ Seifer... /_ One more gratt fell on the ground, dead as a stone.

_/ I don't know what to think about him... He's a bastard, an asshole, but still... /_ Zell zoned out as no more grats appeared, deep in his thoughts.

_/ He is... He is. /_

As he was still our of it, the blond was nowhere ready for what happened next. A very large t-rexaur emerged from between the trees behind him with its mighty roar ringing in the air.

"Holy shit! How did you get here?" Zell yellet out as he spun around to face the beast. It had gotten too near too fast for Zell to lay any strong attacks on it, he could almost smell te rotting fleshbetween its enormous teeth. The blond took a few very fast steps backwards to dodge the t-rexuar's jaws and cursed as it continued to advance towards him. "I thought Squall killed all of you bastards!"

The beast stopped and looked like it was laughing at him and that made Zell furious, yet he couldn't do anything if he wanted to keep all his limbs. He went quickly through the situation in his head and decited that there would be no limbs to lose if he didn't do anything, but before he could make a move to attack there was a flash of gold and the t-rexaur went down under the sudden weight of the dragon on it.

Zell gasped. It was like the dragon knew that like its pre-historic relatives, t-rexaurs were easier to kill once they fell on the ground as they couldn't get up without spending much energy and time on it. Not that there wasn't any danger anymore as the beast still had its teeth and all, but it was slowed down and its attacks were ackward as it tried to maneuver its heavy body back on its feet.

The dragon on the other hand was quick and had nothing hindering its movement and the t-rexaur's fangs didn't even scratch it. It avoided the jaws of the beast and stayed away from its madly swinging tail that would have been able to crush half of a human's bones in a one good hit. Before the beast got even off of its back the dragon had made its choise and lunged at the t-rexaur's momentarily unprotected neck.

Blood stained the ground under the fallen t-rexaur and it roared for the last time in complete agony. It turned its massive head back towards the dragon and tried to save its own life by chasing away its attacker before it was too late.

It was already too late, Zell knew it as he watched the beast collapse when all of its life had left its broken body. Then he looked at the dragon that had saved his life once again as it stood now victorious behind the body of the t-rexaur. There was blood around its mouth and on its claws, it was clearly amused by his dumbfounded expression. Zell felt both sick in his stomach and strangely excited at the same time, a new combination for him.

The dragon backed away several steps, turned away and took off before Zell had any more time to wonder about the feeling. At that exact moment every piece of the puzzle finally clicked into their right places in Zell's mind.

"Wait! SEIFER!" He shouted after the dragon before it could escape from his sight. A second went by. The dragon almost stopped, looking straight into his eyes with its green gaze and started running even faster that before. It wasn't long until Zell was completely alone with the fallen t-rexaur.

"Seifer..." It was him, Zell was sure of it.

**-tbc-**

**Author's notes:**

One more chapter to go my dear readers and then the possible sequel. If anyone wants me to write it I'd like to know now or I won't bother, I have other things to write too. That's why this was so late too, I have had this written for some time, but I wanted to update this at the same time as I update my other fic.

About the sequel, I have already some ideas for it, but if I write it it's going to take some time as I won't most likely write it before I finish some of my older fics. I always promise to do it... but whatever. And I have another SeiferZell fic I'm working on too at this moment, so I'm going to finish that too... Seifer has a cat in it. And such a wonderful little cat it is.


End file.
